


Sit Still, Would You?

by WindStainedDreams



Series: How to Spin a Tale [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Family, Family Fluff, Family portrait, Fluff, Gen, Team as Family, cuteness and angst, remembering victims
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 03:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9365147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindStainedDreams/pseuds/WindStainedDreams
Summary: Today, everyone had a smaller counterpart.  It had been years since Robin’s return, even longer since peace had come and settled on the lands in Naga’s name.  And it was about time that the Shepherds and their children got a family portrait.





	

It was kind of strange.  Even years after Grima’s defeat, Lucina was still not completely used to the peace.  She and the other children from the future had travelled for a while, in small groups or all together, experiencing the world as it should have been in their time.  So many things that had been destroyed in their time they could now experience for themselves.  They no longer had to depend on the stories of their parents. 

 

They also felt strange staying with their parents, despite having won the war at their side.  Sometimes they met up with the other Shepherds on their travels.  Staying with Donny and Nowi on their farm, for example, or Libra and Olivia at the orphanage was always a pleasure.  Whoever was there heard about how the others were doing and passed along the word to each other.  Their parents didn’t push for them to stay with them, and years passed in an easy truce as the world righted itself. 

 

Eventually the children split up, each going on their own adventure, sending letters to each other and their parents whenever they remembered, lost in living their own lives free from Risen and Grima’s shadow. 

 

Despite the great distances sometimes separating the Shepherds, every year on the day Robin sacrificed himself, they gathered back at Origin Peak to celebrate their victory and remember those they had lost along the way.  Soldiers, villagers, everyone celebrated throughout all of Ylisse and most of Valm, many making a pilgrimage to the near-holy site to lay flowers on the graves marking the unknown multitudes of dead from each realm.  No matter how solemn and sad the day was, it was ultimately a victory they celebrated and fireworks and feasting were just as common as toasts to the deceased. 

 

All of the Shepherds and their children came, every year, without fail.  Even if someone refused contact with the other members of the group for the rest of the year, they were there to remember Robin and the battle fought to save their world.  It was not just the children who had fought with their parents against Grima, desperate for a chance at a future somewhere that visited Mount Prism.  The children that had now been born in this time were also there to remember with their parents. 

 

At first it had been difficult, seeing themselves as infants in their mothers’ arms.  They knew that they would have little place in the lives of the new children for fear that they would become copies of their future selves and not individuals.  The older children had hung back, doing their own rituals of forgiveness apart from the main ceremony led by Chrom.  It was only after Robin returned, learned of the problem and confirmed that being exposed to their older selves would not harm either of the children that everyone felt comfortable sharing rooms in a temple of remembrance at the summit of Origin Peak.  He’d discovered it while he spent time with Tharja in some sort of cryptic and dark divination, but Chrom and the other Shepherds were too glad to have Robin back to question his methods. 

 

Little Lucina was now almost as old as Older Lucina was when she had gone on her first diplomatic visit to Plegia.  Time had passed peacefully and while they did not make it a habit to mingle with their younger selves often, this week of remembrance was an exception.  The other future children were also finding their younger counterparts, mingling easily in the crowd of Shepherds and their families.  The birth order wasn’t quite the same, peace being a kinder mistress to their parents than war, but all the little ones always came running to find their bigger selves, no matter how awkward some of those first meetings could be.  Laurent was teaching Laurent to read, the toddler already pushing his little glasses up his nose in imitation of his “big brother”.  Cynthia and Nah, still so youthful at heart, were giving their little selves, just learning to walk on their own, rides on their backs.  It seemed that they were being the pegasi in an epic battle or adventure.  Even Gerome was willing to break his grumpy solitary streak, showing the unmasked Gerome how to care for Minerva, what the little boy could do and where Minerva liked to be scratched. 

 

Little Lucina still led the pack, a champion to her friends.  It was little Lucina that had approached them one year, before Robin had been found, and asked them to join their families at dinner.  The five year old had seemed so serious, a stubborn pout on her lips when the elders had not responded right away that they were coming.  Not all of their younger selves had been born yet, and some felt more comfortable than others to accept the invitation.  Brady, Owain and Severa had stood behind the little blue haired princess, expressions an equal mix of disappointment and boredom with the adults for not playing with them.  It hadn’t taken more than a few seconds of the puppy looks before the future children had put out their campfire and followed the young ones into the temple.  After that, it was a habit, and Robin’s return merely eased nerves that had mostly gone ignored for years. 

 

Today, everyone had a smaller counterpart.  It had been years since Robin’s return, even longer since peace had come and settled on the lands in Naga’s name.  While Lucina was now eight, Brady and Severa seven and Owain six, the rest younger still, it was finally possible for Libra to draw a sketch of the children with themselves.  Gerome was five, of an age with Laurent (who was already teaching others to read, pushing the youngsters to keep up with him and his older self).  Cynthia and Nah, at three, were among the youngest.  The hardest to wrangle of the bunch was young Morgan, just starting to walk and already getting into enough mischief to make anyone who knew the older Morgan proud.  Kjelle, Noire and Inigo had been born shortly after Owain, almost on the same day, and often celebrated the day of their birth together, hosting the other children wherever they happened to be that year and depending on whose turn it was to host.  Yarne was four, the little Taguel chasing after Owain and Inigo but also fiercely protecting any of those younger than him.  They had such carefree youth to them; it warmed the hearts of any of the future children to see them play and laugh with each other, forming the same friendships they’d experienced and creating new ones. 

 

Today, as the sun lit up the meadows where the giant stone pillars had been erected, one for each country to mark their departed in the many battles that lead up to Grima’s defeat, the children’s laughter mixed as it never had before.  As Libra set up his supplies under the curious eyes of Robin and some of the other parents, the children mingled and attempted to take each other down.  Many of the younger ones ganged up on Owain and Inigo, hanging from all their limbs, shackling them and trying to tickle them into submission.  Even if those were their younger selves, they had become almost like older siblings and some of them even took turns watching them for their parents.  Severa was braiding some of the girls’ hair, being clambered on by Kjelle and Cynthia as they waited impatiently for their turns.  The elder Cynthia was clearly the mastermind behind the takedown of the boys, probably in some plot to re-enact an epic adventure or other. 

 

They were all together and it wasn’t the day of remembrance.  Somehow, now that peace was lasting, now that everyone was returned to them, they had started meeting more frequently.  Family picnics were common, sharing summer homes and boarding each other’s children a regular summer pastime.  And now, now, the parents had insisted that Libra sketch all of their children together. 

 

Libra finally called for attention, his quiet voice still carrying over the field.  Owain and Inigo immediately picked up the rascals still attached to them and marched over, prepared to do what the priest asked.  For all their goofing around, they wouldn’t argue with Inigo’s father.  They put the younger generation down and herded them together.  Kjelle called to bring Gerome down from the skies where he had been flying with his younger self, her loud voice carrying as far in the quiet meadow as it had on the noisy battlefield.  Severa picked up the girl in her lap and brought them all over to Libra, her younger self perched on her shoulders. 

 

“How would you like us?” asked Lucina, speaking as always for the group.  Although part of it had to do with rank, really, no one else wanted the responsibility of making sure Brady wasn’t crying again, or that Inigo didn’t get thrown out of another bar for being a flirt. 

 

“Please, make yourselves comfortable.  There are logs, the tree itself behind you, as well as stones and the grass.  I would like it if you could sit with your other selves, however, to show the ages.”

 

The instructions were simple, and although Owain and Inigo fought for space on the low hanging branch themselves, they eventually ceded the spot to their younger selves, propping them up and standing on either side, ready in case they fell.  The two Yarnes, Nahs and their mothers spent a moment talking, clearly deciding on whether or not to assume their Taguel and Manakete forms, especially for ones as young as Little Yarne and Little Nah.  An idea struck Nowi, and she bounded over, still an excitable young lady in all but years. 

 

“Hey Libra, do you think you could sketch the Yarnes and Nahs in first, then they can move and take on their Beast and Manakete shapes off to the side?  That way you can see both and it would look really cool!”

 

Libra smiled and nodded, assuring the mothers that he would be as quick as he could to trace the magical shapes of their children, protecting them from over exposure to their stones’ abilities. 

 

The children all gathered together, getting comfortable, sharing their personal space, and leaving plenty of room for two giant bunnies and a couple of dragons in their midst.  Then the older and younger kids settled in, still talking but staying relatively still, not focused on Libra but each other. 

 

Different people, and yet the same, the children mirrored each other truly across generations.  It was a wonder made possible by dear Naga herself, and yet, the Shepherds were, and always had been, the best family anyone could ever ask for. 

**Author's Note:**

> NaNo Hell Day 2 - Youth 
> 
> I hated this one, but I hope that someone out there enjoys it. I will be posting one fic a week, so I will see you all next Tuesday (probably). As always, feel welcome to comment!


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